Less than a year after an explosion at an outreach event in Girona, Spain that injured 18, another accident in the same region has hurt four children after a demonstration went wrong. A surprisingly simple experiment – the bicarbonate and vinegar volcano – exploded and burnt some students, who were attending a summer school in […]

Researchers in Spain have devised a new parameter for comparing and understanding bonds. It describes the degree of interpenetration of the van der Waals crusts of two atoms, which they call the penetration index. It can replace previous distance measurements with simple calculations about crust overlap, and be applied to bonds ranging from strongly covalent […]

A new pathogen air quality monitor can detect Sars-CoV-2 virus in the air in real time. The researchers who developed the proof-of-concept device say that it is suited for surveillance of Sars-CoV-2 variants in indoor environments like hospitals and patient isolation rooms, and could be adapted for the detection of other respiratory pathogens of interest. […]

There is a need to build the evidence base relating to research integrity from all parts of the sector, the UK Committee on Research Integrity has said in its first annual statement. The organisation, which is responsible for promoting and driving research integrity in the UK, laid out its recommendations in line with the five […]

The addition of a simple sugar, β-cyclodextrin, can boost the performance of flow batteries. A team from the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), dissolved the starch derivative in the flow battery’s electrolyte, leading to a 60% improvement in the battery’s peak power, and boosted its capacity and longevity. Flow batteries show […]

As in other fields of practical mathematics, such as cartography, astronomy, surveying, or even astrology, England lagged well behind other European countries when it came to the introduction of informal and formal instruction in navigation in the Early Modern Period. Today, we return with another post in the series illustrating the endeavours made to close […]

The US has destroyed its last remaining chemical weapons stockpile. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has confirmed that, as a result, all of the world’s declared stockpiles have now been eliminated. In 1997 the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into force, obligating member states to destroy any chemical weapon stockpiles that […]

A new technology rapidly rolls adhesive tape to get graphene flakes cheaply and efficiently. Unlike the memorable manual method of mechanical exfoliation – rewarded with the Nobel prize in physics in 2010 – this roll-to-roll system could be easily integrated into industrial assembly lines, accelerating the development of graphene transistors and photodetectors. ‘We’ve developed a […]

It has been several decades since the monoclonal antibody Synagis (palivizumab) was approved as a preventative for severe disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. But it seems possible that, by the end of the summer, there will be three brand new therapies – including two vaccines and a long-acting antibody – approved for […]

A newly discovered pathway for formaldehyde oxidation could be an important general mechanism in tropospheric chemistry. In the new route, absorption of sunlight allows organic molecules to react with atmospheric oxygen in a reaction that had not previously been observed. According to the researchers behind the findings, many compounds in the atmosphere are likely to […]